Train up a child

As fathers, we have a responsibility to teach our children correct principles. If we do, we will equip them for the time when they have children of their own.
Some have asked, why does this passage say our children "will not depart from" the things we teach them? Are we depriving them of their agency by teaching them the Gospel or other things we believe to be true? I don't think so. However, I do believe that it means when we teach our children the Gospel, it will stay with them, even if they wander away from it. The choice will need to be their own, but the opportunity to return will always be open to them if we do our duty as parents and teach them by word and by example.
Happy Father's Day!

Our Escape

Death and Hell--or Physical Death and Spiritual Death--are very aptly compared to a terrible monster, which we cannot hope to escape on our own. Thankfully, God prepared a way for us to escape. It is only through His Son, Jesus Christ, that we are able to escape. Because He laid down his life and took it up again, all mankind will be Resurrected one day; physical death will be conquered, and will have claim over us for only a short time before we too will be resurrected, our bodies perfected and reunited with our spirits, never to be parted again. Because He took upon Himself the sins and pains of the entire world in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Way has been prepared for our liberation from spiritual death as well. All we need to do is take hold, and not let go.

Cold or Hot

Is it better to be sincerely in error, or to be lukewarm about the truth?

One of Christ's biggest criticisms of the Pharisees and other self-righteous, non-believing Jews at the time was that they knew the Law of God, and yet they were complacent. The felt superior to other nations because of their knowledge of the things of God. And yet Jesus hinted that the heathen nations and even the likes of Sodom and Gomorrah would fare better than they (see for example Matthew 11:23-24).

How often do those of us who know the truth of the Gospel leave our swords sheathed and unused, while those who are in error only because they know not where to find the truth (D&C 123:12) energetically proclaim and defend their own beliefs? How often do we think we are better than they, for the simple reason that we have learned and accepted the Gospel? And yet we know that God looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). We've seen evidence of those who were zealous about things which were not true, and then upon learning their error, promptly repented and then were just as--if not more--zealous about the truth (Saul turned Paul is one of the most dramatic examples of this). Furthermore, we know that the dead who would have accepted the Gospel if they'd been permitted to tarry on this earth will be heirs of the Kingdom just as if they had done so (D&C 137:7). And that, of course, is only up to God, who will be the perfect Judge of the thoughts and intents of all men and women, according to the knowledge they received on this earth.

It is the duty of every person to do what they can to discover the truth, and then act according to whatever knowledge they have received. The everlasting Mercy of God, afforded to us by the Atonement of Christ, will make up for our deficiencies. But not if we are lukewarm and indifferent about that knowledge.